


Famine

by blackat_greneys



Series: Horsemen's Reins [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, F/F, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Freeform, Gen, Mentions of Sex, Mind Manipulation, One Piece Big Bang 2016, Theft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-01 12:52:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6520519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackat_greneys/pseuds/blackat_greneys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People who have never experienced starvation could never understand how Luffy felt all the time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He lived in constant starvation. He hungered for everything. That was just what Famine did. Luffy fed off of people's desires for whatever they wanted most.</p><p>Nothing that the red head was looking at tipped Luffy's scales. He watched as, finally, the right side of the scale started to move down as she held up a dark blue negligee. He watched closely as the left side started to go back down, meaning she wanted it but something was stopping her. Just like what he has done before, Luffy tipped the scale. He placed his finger firmly on the right side and pushed down. The woman than simply found the appropriate size, paid, and left.</p><p>Luffy decided to get Nami to steal whatever it was Chopper had that she wanted. He placed two fingers on the right scale and pushed down. Luffy watched her dissolve melt into acceptance and then all of a sudden the scale was pushed up. It didn't do it subtly or lightly either. It shoved upward with all the force it could muster, dislodging Luffy's fingers. The right scale was now as high as it could be and Luffy didn't know what to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Famine finds a new food cart

**Author's Note:**

> Famine's story is manipulative.
> 
> Please be cautious if you have any triggers associated with these things. If I have left something out of the tags please inform me so I can add it. Thank you :) and read safe!
> 
> (it does end happy)
> 
> Also please inform me if I have any spelling, grammar, or tense mistakes. I didn't have time for someone to beta for me (I have had a very busy several months) so all mistakes are mine and I would like to fix them. I did quick editing so I know I have some. Thanks!
> 
> Art is by [aryable](http://aryable.tumblr.com) on tumblr!! make sure you show her your love!!

People who had never experienced starvation could never understand how Luffy felt all the time, 24 hours a day seven days a week. He lived in constant starvation. Not necessarily for food. He hungered for everything. That was just what Famine did.

Luffy fed off of people's desires for whatever they most wanted. Around Valentines it was love and sex. _Some of those were pretty funny to be witness too._ Around Christmas it was for material objects; toys, jewelry, anything people could get there hands on. December was the one time in the year that Luffy could actually feel like what he was eating was actually staying with him. In American at Thanksgiving it was people's need to gorge themselves on food. One of Luffy's favorite times of the year. The one thing he loved to feed off of people most was the hunger to eat.

Luffy classified himself as being slightly different from his brothers. For one was his looks. He was the only one out of the four of them that decided on an outfit that was, _Well, the term Death had used was ragged._ His clothes, what little he had, were tattered and worn through. Holes everywhere and loose threads hung from the seams. The only thing that wasn't like that that he wore was his hat. It was gifted to him at his creation and, even though he did eat his horse within the first decade of his existence, he was determined to keep the hat safe.

Another was that his appearance, physically anyway. It was determined by how well he ate. Pestilences’ nose never got longer the more he spread his plagues, nor did War get bloodier, or Death become less than just bones. It was just Luffy, Famine, that when he ate a good meal, like at Christmas, he gained weight. His frame filled out and he looked healthy. It was usually between May and September, like now, when Luffy would look like he was just skin on bones. Not many people hungered for things at that time. _Ok, that's wrong._ Many people did, just not as many between October and April.

The third thing that made him different was that he didn't always just pray on the entire population of planet Earth. Sure he did that, like in December, but he mostly went to a specific handful that met most of his needs. _Those one percenters that other people always complain about._ Part of the reason War got such a great civil war in America those four years ago was because of Famine and his one percenters.

However, the current person Luffy had started to follow was not one of those people. There was certainly a chance that Luffy could turn her into one. She had an insatiable hunger for money and material goods, mostly clothing and cartography supplies. Which really didn't make sense to Luffy since she only ever wore, what she called, ‘power suits’ when she was at work.

That was where he met up with her, in her executive office up in some fancy building in the middle of Auckland. He watched her help bring all kinds of money into the company doing whatever it was she did. Actually he wasn't even sure if she was bringing in the money or just counting it. It was all just a bunch of numbers to him. He fed off her ability to do whatever it was her job was, but also when she took her breaks to look up new interesting clothing options.

It was during one of those breaks that Luffy realized he could follow her around outside of work where some of her other greed options would become available to him. Sure he got plenty off of her at her work on her computer with the numbers and online catalogues. But it was the thought that he could manipulate her wants into action out on the streets that got him following her one afternoon.

Luffy watched her long red hair as it flowed down her back and moved with her steps and the slight breeze. _Why does she need the scarf if she has that hair?_ Luffy wondered as they made their way into a small boutique that sold ladies underwear.

He ended up getting bored as he watched her look through bras and panties. Nothing she was looking through tipped his scales.

Famine was the only horseman that actually needed a stupid object to know when someone hungered for something. _It's stupid_ , Luffy thought as he saw the right side of the scale had finally started to move down as she held up a dark blue negligee. He watched closely as the right side started to go back up, meaning she wanted it but not desperately.

Just like what he had done before, with the online things, Luffy tipped the scale. He placed his finger firmly on the right side and pushed down. The woman then simply found the appropriate size, paid, and left. It added a bit of sustenance to Luffy's basket. He knew that it wasn't going to last long. _Nothing lasts long in a basket with no bottom_ , he thought as he followed the woman to her apartment.

Luffy had been very stupid and very naive when he had first been figuring out his abilities all those millennia ago. He had eaten his horse. A stupid idea and one that he has forever regretted, because that horse was cool. _All black and sleek and too thin to fill anyone up._ As far as Luffy knew War was the only one with a horse still around. Although he could have sworn he saw it wandering around without its master sometime last year. Not like it was Luffy's business, but if he did find it wandering without War he was going to eat it. Thin as his horse may have been it kept him fed far longer than anything else he had ever partaken in.

Upon entering the young woman's house the right scale fell completely down at the smell of cooked food in the air. _Food_ , Luffy thought as he threw himself into the kitchen to see what was being made. Another young woman stood in the kitchen, long blue hair tied up into a ponytail at the crown of her head, who lightly stirred a sauce in one pot with an eye on the pasta that was in the other.

_No meat._ Luffy dramatically sank to the floor in the kitchen, half passed through the floor, and moaned at the depravity of it. _They don't even have a slight hunger for meat,_ he whined more as the red head walked into the room after she had changed. She lightly kissed her, apparent, girlfriend on the shoulder before she gathered dishes and set the table off to the side.

Luffy got a small fill during the dinner and even got more after. They had sex, well they called it dessert. They even used the new negligee.

Sex wasn't one of those things Luffy had ever been interested in. Pestilence liked it, well when he gave people diseases from it, and War found it to resemble another form of battle. But Luffy just didn't care. Sure it fed him rather well, especially these women. _They don't have an off switch._ But it just didn't seem like a necessary thing.

After several rounds Luffy watched as the two women finally drifted off to sleep. With a full belly Luffy did the same, sort of. Horsemen didn't need to sleep like humans did, just as they didn't need to have sex like Nami and Vivi, Luffy learned their names as they moaned them to each other, did. Horsemen more just emptied their mind while they attached themselves to someone that they felt like following. Luffy did that to Nami, so that he would be with her for a time and influence her whenever the scales started to lean. The thing about the Horsemens' ‘sleep’ was that they controlled when they attached to someone, and when they let their minds drift, but as soon as the attached person started to have any feelings that were similar to what the Horseman craved they were woken up. This meant Luffy's brothers could float on people for long periods of time before the person got sick, wanted to fight, or felt like dying. Luffy on the other hand never got to float for long.

He got ‘woken up’ the next morning by more of a need to stick fingers in places, followed by the need to bath, then the need to eat, before finally Nami ran off to work.

Work was more of the same. Lots of number, a new dress and shoes, more numbers, a present for Vivi, and more numbers. Luffy hated it at the same time loved it for feeding him.

It was after work that got interesting. Nami had a phone call with Vivi about someone named Chopper and ‘meeting at his place for dinner.’ Luffy loved dinner. He just wasn't expecting the company.

There was Nami, who he followed, Viv, the person named Chopper, and Pestilence.


	2. Famine didn't get it

Luffy couldn't believe it. “Brother!” he yelled as he went to tackle Pestilence who was floating on the other side of the room.

“Famine!” Pesty called out in return and hugged Luffy close, before they moved back and looked at each other.

Luffy almost couldn't believe the change he saw in Pesty. His clothes were loose and showed off his skin, his crown sat crooked and dull atop his bush of hair. Even his blanket looked different. “It’s been so long!” Luffy yelled at him and didn't really care about the change because he got to finally see a brother again.

“It has!” Pesty replied, looking Luffy up and down. He felt his chest puff out at Pesty's gaze. “How are you? You seem well fed.” Pesty asked as he moved to right Luffy's hat that had fallen backwards some on his head.

“This one,” Luffy indicated Nami with his thumb, “has crazy appetites for things.” He giggled at everything that he had fed on since he started following her. The amount of new clothes her and her girlfriend had was starting to get a little ridiculous.

Pesty laughed too. “I’m sure she does.” There was a look in Pesty's eye that said that e knew exactly what Luffy was talking about. Like he knew Nami personally.

Luffy tipped his head to the side as he wondered out loud, “What are you doing here?” Then he looked over to the one that Nami had gone to see. Nothing seemed to be wrong with the man. “This Chopper person doesn't look sick.” He said before he turned his eyes back to Pesty.

The way Pest was avoiding eye contact with Luffy made Luffy think something was wrong. He didn't know what it was but he was going to stop it.

Pesty said as his eyes searched out the room without landing on Luffy, “He’s not.” Pesty's hands rang together in front of him before he continued, “He’s a doctor.”

“Ohhhh, so you've been making those around him sick.” Luffy didn't get it. The man being a doctor wasn't a reason for Pesty to be all nervous. In fact it made sense to Luffy.

“Actually," Pesty's voice got all quiet as his eyes searched the room again, "I can't.”

Ok, now Luffy was very confused. Luffy had never know Pestilence to not be able to make someone or the people around them sick. “Can't?” Luffy questioned. He needed an answer.

Pesty finally met his eyes as he said, “How long have you been following Nami?”

“Hmmm, outside of work has been,” Luffy thought about it, “two days today!” So maybe he shouldn't have needed to think. It wasn't that long of a time even though he sort of felt like it because Nami always hungered for something.

“I take it she hasn’t visited anyone besides Chopper then," Pesty guessed.

“Nope.” A smile spread across Luffy's face when he answered. He had always loved to talk to Pesty the most. 

“Well," Pesty hesitated in his answer before he visibly gathered his courage and continued, "I can't make Chopper or any of his friends sick because of Zoro.”

Luffy tipped his head side wise again. “Who?” He didn't know how someone could stop Pestilence from making people ill.

“Zoro, its…,” Pesty looked off to the side and looked like he was debating how he was going to word something what he then said, “well, its Wars human name.” Luffy just felt his head fall farther to the side, temple almost hitting his shoulder. “He now calls me Usopp.” Pesty continued with a puffed out chest and thumb pointing to himself, like taking a name was something he was proud of.

“Huh?” Luffy wasn't sure if had heard correctly, or understood why Pestilence did the pose that he did. “Wars human name?” that was the most confusing thing of all, not even Pesty's happiness for having one of his own.

Luffy watched as Pesty's posture slumped as he said, “War made himself human.” This time Luffy got it. He felt his jaw hit the floor as Pesty continued, “He’s been human now for… almost four years.”

Then it hit Luffy. War's horse was wandering without him. The war in America had ended quickly and no other large war had emerged as of yet. Luffy couldn't quit wrap his mind around it. “Why?” He said out loud not realizing his inner thoughts came out till Pesty answered.

“He fell in love.”

That was something Luffy couldn't believe, at all. “What?” There was no way that happened. Something must have happened to War and then he had passed it onto Pesty. That was the only explanation.

“War fell in love.” Pesty repeated. Luffy saw hesitation in the way Pestilence was floating that said he didn't want to continue talking, but that he also had to get it out. “He's stopped feeding into people's need for war.”

That was it. “But,” Luffy was positive now that War and Pestilence were someone else. “He's War…,” Luffy finished lamely with his voice barely above a whisper.

Pestilence shrugged at that like he had had the same thought. “He's a new War.” _And maybe he had_ , Luffy realized as he vaguely heard Pestilence continue, “You'll understand soon enough.” Luffy didn't think that he could. These were his brothers. Brothers that had certain desires. Desires that they couldn't control on their own. Yet Pestilence just kept going and didn't seem to care that Luffy didn't believe him. “Especially if you keep hanging around with Nami.” Pestilence added a small smile to the end as he looked over at the woman sitting at the table.

Luffy shook his head. As much as he loved his brothers, he just couldn't believe that they had changed in that way. It was too much. “No, Pestilence, I don't think I will.” He watched Pestilence deflate at the lack of the nickname Luffy usually called him. Pesty was the only one he had ever liked. “How could I eat if I’m not Famine,” Luffy wondered out loud, not really looking for an answer. He just needed to think it, or as it happened say it.

Pestilence shrugged and said, “You would be a new Famine.” He even tacked on a smile at the end that didn't endear Luffy to the sentiment.

“I’m ignoring you.” Luffy decided it was the only way to end the mysterious conversation. “You make no sense.”

Pestilence laughed a little at that, although it did sound hurt. “I felt the same when I talked to Zoro about it.” He cleared his throat before he said quietly, “I’m sure you will get it soon too.”

Luffy just turned away from him and said “Ignoring you," and he did just that. He ignored the hurt look on Pestilence's face and the way he slouched into himself.

Luffy just didn't get it. _What happened to make Pestilence and War tame?_ They had always been the ones that dished out the most pain and suffering. _How could they have changed so much?_ To even want to be called by different names. _They aren't the brothers I remember._

Luffy moved across the room to float beside Nami who sat at the table and ate her meal. He watched her laugh with her friend and girlfriend. Watched as she smiled, as she argued, as her need for food left her moving his scales so they were even.

He saw out of the corner of his eye as Pestilence tried to gain his attention, but Luffy couldn't care less. His brothers, his only family, were different and Luffy couldn't understand why. Sure, humans were fascinating in their hunger for things, but that was it. _How could they be so amazing as to capture my brothers._ The brothers that were most known for their ability to not care about who got caught up. _Ok so sometimes War cared_ , Luffy thought as he watched Pestilence out of the corner of his eye lean down to look at some papers Chopper was holding.

Luffy didn't really know what happened to dinner. He remembered Nami wasn't really hungry for food anymore and then all of a sudden they were sitting on comfy chairs around a little table with drinks that smelled suspiciously like coffee.

Pestilences’ charge, Luffy's wasn't sure what he should call Chopper in regards to that, had been looking over some papers about something. But they had been discussing money for some of their other friends.

Luffy didn't get it, and didn't really care. He watched Nami as she listened and then Luffy began to see his right scale fall down. It was doing it rather slowly, but it was. Luffy couldn't figure out what it was for at first. _Can't be the money they are discussing giving away_ , Luffy realized, _but it also has nothing to do with needs of the body._ Luffy looked around the room they were sitting in, and tried to figure out what material thing it was that had caught Nami’s eye. There were a few things that he thought Nami might like; the bonsai sakura tree, the aboriginal masks on the wall, or, and after Luffy saw it knew it was it, the small crystal figure of a pirate ship cresting a wave.

With the right scale that was still slowly moving down Luffy decided to get Nami to steal it. He had made others do that before. He hadn't tried it on Nami yet, but he was sure she wasn't going to hesitate at the idea.

He placed two fingers on the right scale and pushed down. He watched as Nami fidgeted in her chair, and looked towards the crystal figure every now and then. Luffy began to see her dissolve melt into acceptance of stealing the item, but then all of a sudden the scale his fingers were pressed against pushed up. It didn't do it subtly or lightly either. It shoved upward with all the force it could muster and dislodged Luffy's fingers entirely.

The right side was now as high as it could be and Luffy didn't know what to do. _This has never happened before,_ he thought as he placed his fingers on it yet again and tried to shove it back down. _It doesn't move._

Pestilence had moved beside him at some point during the process of trying to get it back down. Luffy felt his brother lean forward and whispered to him, “You don't know humans yet. They will surprise you even after all this time.”

Luffy didn't get it.


	3. Famine gives

This issue with the scales that fought against Luffy didn't happen again with Nami for quit some time.

After that incident Luffy left with Nami and Vivi in a huff. He was mad at Pestilence for being right, sort of, and mad at Nami for being able to fight him so effectively.

Luffy remembered what Pestilence had said about him not being able to get any of them sick because of War. He didn't know if War had the same influence with him, at least he was pretty sure that War couldn't. Luffy decided to test that it was just that one time or if Nami really wasn't capable of stealing anything if Luffy tried to make her.

Luffy followed Nami around for almost three weeks and made her buy random things online at work, but when she went out shopping he made her steal the items, and she was good. When Luffy used the two fingers on the scale to make her steal something, she never hesitated once. She always took what it was and did it in a way that no one noticed or expected. He had never seen someone steal as much as she had in one store and look like she hadn't left with twenty times more things than she had entered.

 _So it was a one time thing_ , Luffy realized as he followed her and Vivi over to someone's else's house for an evening. Luffy idly wondered if this was where War was. He still hadn't seen his other brother since he started following Nami around and really hoped it was, just so that he could get answers out of the man.

No such luck.

It was the house of a couple named Franky and Robin. Luffy had no idea why they looked so haggard and worn out, but both Nami and Vivi automatically hugged the couple before they all sat around a table and discussed, of all things, money.

Luffy didn't get it. _Why is Nami discussing giving away her money?_

For the first time, since he started following individuals around for substance, Luffy watched as the left side of his scale started to go down.

“What!!!” He yelled out even though he knew none of them could hear him. He had never seen his scales do that before. He assumed that it meant Nami wanted to give away something that she usually hungered for. _But,_ Luffy thought, _people usually never want to give the item they hunger for away_.

He quickly placed a finger on the lifting right side and tried to push down. Nothing happened. He added a second finger, and again nothing. Even with his entire fist he tried to push the right side down but nothing happened. It just kept going up and up till it couldn't anymore.

Luffy floated there in the room dumbfounded. It was only the crying of a baby that pulled him out. The woman, Robin, got up to go to it and left the others to sit there to keep discussing payments. He vaguely heard Nami tell the man, Franky, that they didn't have to pay her back.

 _This isn't the person I've been following_ , Luffy thought as he watched Nami make plans about payments to the couple and exactly how much they were going to need. Luffy heard the words ‘V.S.D.’ and ‘surgery,’ but the rest he blanked out because no matter how much strength he placed into trying to move the right scale, it didn't budge.

It happened as he was floating along behind Nami and Vivi, as they made their way home, that he realized why Nami felt so strongly about giving the couple her money. _They are her friends,_ Luffy thought as the couple made their way into their apartment. _They are her friends that have a sick child in need of help_.

He got it. Luffy understood why she felt the way she did and why it was impossible to move the left scale back up, but no one had ever defied Famine’s hunger before. He didn't fully get it, and he figured that he might never really will. But now he was starting to kind of see what Pestilence was talking about. _No, Usopp_ , Luffy corrected as he watched the women go to bed.

He stayed with Nami, watched how she acted, how her scales tipped. The right one leaned down all of the time, like it always had, but now the left one had been going down more and more as the months pass.

Luffy watched one day as she cared for her friends sick child when they went out. He saw the way that she cooed to him, the way she held him, how she adjusted his breathing tubes when he messed with them. It was around then that Luffy realized that she was going to fight her nature of greed and selfishness for those she loved.

He got it. He could go to Usopp and tell him that he understood. That he now saw more of human beings than just their greed and hunger. Luffy saw now their selflessness and he treasured that in Nami and the friends of hers he had met.

Luffy sat with Nami and her human friends, War - _no Zoro_ \- included, in one of their living rooms the night of the boys operation. They all tried to get their mind off of what could go wrong, and Luffy hoped the boy made it through. He wanted to continue seeing the selflessness of these people for a time to come.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Remember if I left out any tags you think should be added, please let me know. Also about spelling, grammar, or tense mistakes.
> 
> Thanks!


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